The Toronto Association of Business Improvement Areas (TABIA) and the City of Toronto’s BIA Office worked together to declare “BIA Week” in the City of Toronto for January 29 February 2, 2018. The goal of the event was for Toronto BIAs to educate Councilors, City Staff and the public about what BIAs are and how they contribute to Toronto. This included information displays and decoration in the City Hall rotunda for the week and a reception hosted by TABIA with City Councilors and Staff.
Communications
Sub Topics: Communications
Top Issues Council: Place Branding – How to Brand and Market Your District
Each downtown and urban district is unique and offers different experiences. More than just a logo, tagline or marketing campaign, place branding identifies and distills a district down to its core identity and sense of place. The IDA Place Branding Top Issues Council has developed this report as a guide for urban districts to evaluate different tools and approaches for their own place branding efforts. Learn best practices and strategies to brand and market your district.
The Underline – Building a 10 Mile Greenway
Meg Daly, Founder of Friends of the Underline, shares her story of turning a crazy idea for a 10 mile greenway project into a reality. She walks through the community engagement process and gives her advice for demonstrating the project’s importance to the community and government partners.
Social Media: How to Tell the Story of a Place in Eight Seconds
There is an art and science to social media communications and marketing. Amy Blaschka, Founder and Storyteller at AmyBlaschka.com, Jason Gilbert, CEO at Saltwater Software, Ariana Gomez (former) Marketing Director at LA Fashion District BID, and Kerry Inserra, Associate Director at Walnut Creek Downtown Association share the secrets to effective communication on social media.
Internet VS IRL, and the Power of FOMO
Events can be a significant and reliable strategy for attracting people to downtown. The panelists share their strategies and marketing tactics to put on successful events.
South Side Pittsburgh Advisory Panel: Mission Update and Solving Community Challenges
IDA’s Advisory Panels are a time-tested way to explore new ideas, solve difficult problems, and rally the board, staff and community around priority projects or topics. This panel focused on creating a strategic framework for the South Side Local Development Company, assessing the viability of an improvement district, and providing expert insight on best practices for economic vitality. The report details the panel’s findings and recommendations.
Scaling Up: Make Big Small Plans
This session breaks down the most effective strategies for facilitating small-scale improvements to public spaces through tactical urbanism and community engagement. Presented by Tony Garcia at Street Plans Collaborative.
User-Tailored Tracking: From Data Collection to Stakeholder Presentation
Urban district management organizations do not always have technology staff capable of in-depth analyses and database development; if they do, they might collaborate with less tech-savvy partners who are responsible for data collection and tracking. This presentation explores simple and creative methods of collecting and sharing data that can be tailored to the individual user, while holding the safety and security of sensitive data to high standards.
Fresno Advisory Panel: Demand for a PBID
IDA’s Advisory Panels are a time-tested way to explore new ideas, solve difficult problems, and rally the board, staff and community around priority projects or topics. This panel was tasked with weighing the demand for a PBID and assessing the benefits and challenges of implementation. The report details the panel’s findings and recommendations.
Engaging Millennials and Shoppers in the Digital Age
Millennials have built a reputation as the digital generation and although convenience and price are critical to keeping these customers, their spending patterns and lifestyle preferences suggest they also place value on personalized experiences and brand authenticity, both, in-store and online. This session brings together experts in the field of downtown marketing, website development, and Facebook marketing science to share best practice on successful downtown and small business marketing.
Wake Up and Smell the Residents: How Residents are Changing the Place Management Industry
This session will review the growing role of residential in downtowns and the importance of integrating residential uses into place management. Panelists will offer tools to accommodate residential needs in healthy and complete communities. Highlights of IDA’s 2016 Top Issues Council on Downtown Residential will set the stage for a discussion about working with residents in place management organizations.
Active Threat Preparedness for your District
Lessons from previous active threat events illustrate the need to build a more comprehensive approach beyond the average 15 minutes it takes for the perpetrator to be neutralized. Pre-event, immediate response, and recovery activities need to be more thoughtfully considered to fully grasp the complex and dynamic nature of the spectrum of active threat events. This presentation will explore elements of an active threat event.
If You Build It, They Won’t Necessarily Come: Re-Shaping The Narrative of a Place
After years of work, your place is improving: business is good and streets are clean. But old reputations die hard, and problems remain framed a certain way. What if we want people to see places, problems and possibilities differently? Hear diverse places share how they used public space management, programming and public-private partnerships to change the narrative, and offer for discussion and commentary the perception or problem you want to change.
Downtown Districts at the Table: Top Safety Topics of 2017
Every thriving downtown community requires public safety. As downtown centers become re-populated with residents crime has shifted to include dangerous behaviors. Police forces have been thinning and patrols may not be as commonplace. More city centers are destinations for major events, which may also make them targets. How do districts plan for public safety? As a part of IDA’s Top Issues Council, the Safety & Security team explored this topic and more.
Mapping Authenticity: Contemporary Mapping
Maps are the primary way that we orient ourselves to places. But they aren’t neutral: by highlighting some features while obscuring others, they are powerful tools for making meaning. Today, civic data and mobile technologies give us unprecedented control over visualizing place — and new ways for telling authentic, place-based stories.
Charrette Planning for Urban Spaces Leaders
Learn how collaboration by design is transforming urban centers globally. Learn to assess any design project and determine the right type of charrette for your business district! Through case studies, you will learn to activate the unique creative potential of all stakeholders by embedding them in the design process using the National Charrette Institute (NCI) Charrette System approach.
Bridging the Gap – Blending Social and Business Agendas in Your BIA or BID District
Diversity creates excitement, vibrancy, and economic resilience, and can be the heart of a successful urban center offering a place to combat discrimination and social isolation. BIA’s can play an active role in ensuring commercial districts are inclusive places for all people. This panel provides examples from three BIA’s on how to create welcoming urban centers for all.
Become a Local Partner with Google
The mission of Google’s Get Your Business Online program is to help every business be found by every customer looking for them online. Learn how you can partner with Google to help the small businesses you work with in your community, using resources, trainings, gear and one-on-one help from the Google team, all completely free of cost.